


Carl Grimes' Day Off

by midnightwriter



Series: The Domestic Animals [2]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Zombie Apocalypse, Camping, Established Relationship, Family Bonding, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 10:35:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5124362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightwriter/pseuds/midnightwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternative Universe (no zombies).</p><p>July 15th, 2011. Carl is thirteen and he needs a day off from his parents. Daryl is happy to help him take a break and to teach him how to use a crossbow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carl Grimes' Day Off

**Author's Note:**

> This is a series, so everything is connected. But you can read one without reading the other and you can read it in whatever order you like. That's the reason I added the date to the summary, just in case you'd like to read it in chronological order.
> 
> English isn't my first language and I don't have a beta. So I'll appreciate if you point mistakes and typos. I hope you enjoy!

**July 15th, 2011**

Summer vacation has been Carl's favorite time of the year since he can remember because he'd travel to his grandparents house. Sometimes even his dad would be able to travel with him and his mother and they'd go to the beach. Even when they couldn't travel, his dad would still play with him, take him to places and so would his mom. He misses going out for waffles and ice cream on the middle of the week for no reason. But since his parent's divorce four years ago, things have been different.

His vacations are now mostly spent at his mother's house or at his dad's apartment. At his mother's house, where he spends most of his days, he has to share his house with Shane and his new little brother Victor, a fifteen months old baby who is adorable, except when he's crying out loud about his growing teeth.

At his dad apartment, there isn't a backyard for his dad to play with him, and his dad doesn't have the patience to play video games, always complaining about how kids only stay inside doors nowadays. Carl bites his tongue to not say how they still would play outside if his dad hasn't moved out of their house, but he's trying to not to cause more conflict between them. Especially because he'll stay with his dad for the next two weeks while his mom and Shane take his little brother to Shane's mother's house.

He loves them all, although he had some bad moments with his mother and Shane when he first moved in, it's just hard to be a thirteen old boy and do things with his parents. They don't understand him, they talk to him like he still is a child and expect him to act with responsibility like a grown up. It frustrates him more than anything. And having a little brother doesn't exactly help him to understand his role: Is he the big brother? Or is he the only child?

However, things changed after his dad started to date Daryl four months ago. Carl and Michonne spent months trying to make his dad meet new people and go back to dating, for the two thought he might be getting a bit lonely. When his dad finally met someone and introduced his date to him, he was really not expecting a man. But whatever makes his dad happy would make him happy, right?

Daryl has been his favorite person for the last four months, making Michonne slightly jealous of the attention the man has been getting. Once she has been Carl's best "adult friend" since after the divorce of his parents; since that time when he moved in with his father to his new apartment for five months, before his mother threatened to sue his father for Carl come back to her house. It was a very complicated time, just after he found out about the real reason for his father leaving their house, and he couldn't have dealt with everything that happened without Michonne. And she has been his favorite until now.

But Daryl has a motorcycle and lets him ride with him! Daryl plays video games with him three hours straight without complaining, on the contrary, he gets as excited as Carl while playing. Daryl takes him to comic book's shops and lets him buy the ones his mother is against him reading. Daryl never treats him like a child, he treats him like they are equals. And right now Daryl is using his two days off to help Carl learn how to shoot with a crossbow. He even took Carl to a shop two days ago to buy a smaller one, proper for someone of Carl's height and weight.

Daryl is at his dad apartment (as usual) and wakes up earlier than him and his dad (as usual). But today Carl is awake as soon as he hears the noise of the coffee machine. He gets up of bed, change his clothes, takes his backpack from the floor, where he left last night, and goes to the living room, that's attached to the kitchen, where Daryl is taking a sip from his cup.

"Yer up early. It's not even five."

"You said we'd leave first thing in the morning."

Carl sees the look on Daryl's face, almost as if he doesn't believe Carl listened to his words, or as if he doesn't believe Carl actually did what he was told to do, being used to how Carl ignores what his parents tell him to do. Then the man gives a small smile, shakes his head and takes the rest of his coffee.

"Eat somethin', then we go."

Daryl goes to his dad's bedroom and closes the door behind him, like he does whenever he and his dad are in the room, even if all they're doing is talk. Carl asked his dad one day about it, said he didn't have a problem if they talked in front of him or kissed, Shane and his mom do it all the time (it was disturbing at the beginning, now he just doesn't care anymore). Rick said it was a "Daryl thing", which is what he says when he doesn't want to tell Carl something about Daryl, but said he was glad that Carl didn't have a problem with them being together.

Knowing that Daryl probably is changing his clothes and packing his own things, Carl drinks some of the orange juice that is in the fridge and eats a piece of the chocolate cake his dad bought him yesterday. He drinks and eats faster than he should, thankful for the fact that his mother isn't here to tell him to eat slowly or he'll choke.

As soon as he eats the last piece of cake, Daryl and his dad come out of the bedroom. Daryl is dressed in different clothes and his backpack is on his back, just like Carl guessed it would. His dad has a happy smile on his face, but seems too sleepy yet, with his eyes barely open, his hair is mess, and he still is wearing his pajamas' pants.

"Morning, son." His dad's voice is rough and sleepy.

"Morning, dad."

"Ready for your big adventure in the woods?" Carl rolls his eyes at the question. It's so embarrassing the way he talks about it.

"Yeah, dad." He answers annoyed and sees his dad and Daryl exchange a look. They always do that, talking without actually saying a word. It can be really annoying, especially if they're talking about you while you're in the room.

Then his father makes a lot of questions to both Carl and Daryl: if they're taking everything they need; checking every item of the list to be sure they're taking everything they need; telling them to be safe; and that he'll be expecting them tomorrow night for dinner. He kisses Carl's forehead against his will and kisses Daryl, which makes Carl slightly shocked because is: a)the first time he sees his father kissing Daryl in front of him and b)Daryl isn't flinching. When they leave the apartment and walk inside the elevator, he can see the light blush on Daryl's cheek and how the man doesn't look at him until they're inside the car.

Daryl owns a motorcycle, that used to belong to his brother, and a very old blue pickup truck. He usually uses the motorcycle to walk around the city and uses the pickup truck when he goes camping or carries heavy loads. Carl has never been inside the car before and is really excited until Daryl tells him to take a nap because is a one hour drive at least.

Carl wakes up when he senses the car is slowing down and is out of the car as soon as Daryl parks it. They take their sleeping bags, their crossbows and their backpacks in the back of the truck. Carl starts to act like a ball of energy while the two of them are walking through the woods. He's so excited that he can't even control himself, talking a mile per hour.

"Damn, boy, stay still." Daryl says moodily.

If his dad, his mother or Shane said the same thing, Carl would be pretty angry at them right now, but not Daryl. The man isn't irritated because Carl is the one doing the noise, he's irritated because someone is making noise, nothing like his parents, who would snap at him for no reason other than him being himself. And Daryl told him he should be quiet while walking in the woods, to not drive off the prey, and to not attract bigger animals and become the prey.

"Sorry."

"It's alright. Jus' keep quiet. Don't wanna be cougar's dinner."

They keep walking in silence for another half an hour until they arrive at a clearing. Then Daryl starts to explain to Carl how the weapon works and that they would train shooting at trees first, before practicing with moving targets. Carl listens carefully to his every word, he looks at Daryl with admiration and feels determined to impress the man.

Unfortunately, crossbows are harder than they seem, and after two hours of training, Carl is getting frustrated with the thing. He spends one hour just to be able to properly arrange the arrow and when he does it, he can't fire it, it's too heavy and the arrow just falls down. He's about to give up when Daryl gives him another arrow and speaks.

"Mah brother taught me how to use it with our dad's bow. Took me to the backyard and made me practice on empty cans. Took me two weeks to shoot that thing."

"How old were you?"

"Younger than you. Eleven, I think."

"So you're saying it might take two weeks for me to be able to shoot it?"

"Tellin' ya to not give up on yer first day. Nobody's good at the first time."

Daryl's words make sense to him, but don't make him less frustrated about it, he wanted to be good at it, to impress Daryl. He sighs and goes back to practicing, doing the few steps he already knows until he tries to shoot again. A few tries later, he finally hits a tree. Not the one he was aiming at, but hits it nonetheless. He's so happy with the fact that he hugs Daryl, making the man go very still for a few seconds until he awkwardly pats Carl's shoulder, and he sees this as his queue to let go of Daryl.

Carl doesn't know why, but Daryl is always flinching or going very still when someone touches him. He usually flinches when is someone he doesn't know or like, and goes still when is someone he knows and can't find the strength to retreat. It's very weird from Carl's perspective, since his dad, his mom, and even Shane are very touchy with him all the time, which is awkward at best. Although there are moments when he feels like running to his mother's or father's embrace, he doesn't give in to such urges anymore. He's going to be fourteen next month, he's not a kid anymore. No matter how much his parents try to make him feel like one.

He suggests a break on the training, so they can both eat and to give Daryl the time to recover from whatever awkward he must still be feeling from the hug. They eat the food his dad made and packed for them the day before. If there's one thing Carl's pleased about his parents' divorce is his dad new found ability to cook.

Shortly after the divorce was finished, his mother told him that she was dating Shane and he connected the dots pretty quickly. It was plainly obvious that his mother and Shane being together was the reason his dad no longer lived with them anymore, the reason for the divorce. Discovering his mother had an affair and with one of his best "adult friends" was a ground shaking moment to his eleven years old self.

He ran away to his dad new apartment and stayed there for five months until Michonne and his dad convinced him that he shouldn't be mad at his mother, she hadn't done anything to hurt him consciously. He remembers his conversation with his dad about the subject. It was probably the most honest conversation they ever had, the first one where his father treated him like a grown up and not like a kid. The first and last.

However, his dad had to feed him for full five months and he felt only a bad parent would feed his kid with just takeout food and fast-food for so long. So Rick started to cook for him, it wasn't very good at the beginning, and food would get burned more often than not, but it paid off with time because now, three years later, his dad's cooking is almost better than his mother's. Well, except for his dad's pancakes and apple pies, which are definitely better.

They keep with the training during the day and, right before the stars begin to fill up the sky, Daryl and he collect dry wood to start a fire. Daryl offers to hunt a squirrel for dinner, and Carl is thankful that his dad put two soup cans in their backpack, so he can refuse Daryl's offer without starving. He also finds some marshmallows his dad hid with the rest of the food, it makes him smile. They eat the marshmallows by the fire while sharing random stories. At first, Daryl seems more inclined to only listen to Carl's stories about school, comics, and video games, but Carl's curiosity and questions force the man to share some stories too. Daryl tells some adventures he had in the woods with his older brother many years ago.

When he's in the tent, alone because Daryl said he prefers to sleep outside, he thinks about how camping with Daryl is much better than camping with the boy scouts, which he did during summer vacations when he was eight, nine and ten years old. It feels much more like an adventure now with Daryl than ever before. When he closes his eyes, one last thought crosses his mind: he really wishes his dad will keep dating Daryl.

Next day, Carl wakes up much later than the day before and finds Daryl sitting by a tree near the camp, carving a piece of wood and smoking a cigarette. As soon as he sees Carl leaving the tent, he stubs out the cigarette against the soil and gets up. Carl eats the sandwiches his dad made for them and Daryl tells he already ate his share.

Then Daryl takes him to a small lake and they spend a couple of hours swimming, with Carl teaching Daryl how to dive headfirst, followed by a water war. They go back to camp and continue with the crossbow's lessons. Carl is less frustrated with the slow results of his training, mostly because he's having so much fun that he decides to not let it upset him anymore.

It's around four o'clock when he and Daryl undo the camp and the man tells him how to not leave tracks behind while doing it, and also says the next lesson he's going to teach Carl is how to properly track animals. Carl is thrilled with the knowledge that Daryl would like to take him to go camping again, to teach him something more. He has been feeling unsure if there'd be a next time since he wasn't good with the crossbow and because of his incapacity of being quiet and still for much long. Daryl had to tell him to stay still a few more times in these last two days.

After entering the car, Carl doesn't last two minutes with his eyes open. The small amount of sleep and all of the activities from the last couple of days making him weary. With his eyes closed, his mind is filled with dreams made of trees and the promise of having other days like these. With his eyes closed, he misses the happiness spreading across Daryl's face. The man's eyes are shining in joy and he has a shy smile upon his lips.

Later, Carl will tell every single detail of this little trip to Rick and the same expression of happiness will show up on Daryl's face. Rick's heart will tighten in his chest and an equally happy smile will spread across his face. That's the moment he'll know he's deeply in love with Daryl and forever will be. Carl can read it in his dad's expression and it makes him happy too, at least his wish for Daryl to stay will become true.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing from the perspective of a 13 years old moody teenager was unexpectedly fun. Who would've known? 
> 
> And, as you can see, Lori's and Shane's baby is not Judith. Mostly because Judith is Rick's and Daryl's daughter on the show and I shall make her their daughter in this series too (somewhere in the future).
> 
> I wanted to finish and post this sooner, but I got sick and I had a test! So I had to use my "free time" to study and to rest. =(
> 
> I'm really pleased with your feedback about "The Book Club". You all made me so, so happy. Thank you so much!
> 
> Your feedback is always welcomed!


End file.
